Women’s Studies

UCD Women’s Studies Centre (WSC) was established in 1990 as the Women’s Education, Research and Resource Centre, and since then it has been the primary centre in Ireland for teaching and research in Women’s Studies (and the related fields of gender studies and sexuality studies) with a well-established international reputation. The Women’s Studies Centre has an established international reputation and an established track record of research, of securing research funding and of attracting research students. It has played and will continue to play a crucial role in maintaining the national and international profile of the School of Social Justice

The WS Centre at UCD is the largest and best known Women’s Studies Centres in Ireland and has established itself as one of the leading centres for Women’s Studies in Europe. UCD Women’s Studies Centre is the hub for UCD’s Feminist and Gender Studies Network, which comprises over 50 inter-disciplinary faculty members , and includes established academics with international reputations as well as the most dynamic emerging scholars.

Women and gender studies is an exciting field of inquiry which draws on the insights and politics of feminism to develop new and more complex understandings of gender relations and women's historical and contemporary experiences. Women's studies is a vibrant international field of study, producing its own body of scholarship and, at the same time, challenging and altering traditional disciplines making a profound effect on the wider world. Feminist theory offers us a complex understanding of how oppression works locally and globally and offers rich insight into the way multiple discrimination works across gender, race, class, sexual orientation, dis/ability and age.

Our classes are taught according to feminist teaching principles and so there is active student participation with a focus on empowering students to realize their own capacity. The classes are politically and socially relevant and students learn to think critically and develop a more open mind.

Women, Gender and Society postgraduate qualifications are increasing in social, political and vocational relevance. Issues relating to gender roles, women and equality are surfacing within government, community and voluntary organizations, non-governmental organizations, the media and service professions. Our programmes have practical applications for a variety of professional fields and after completion of their studies our graduates find themselves exploring opportunities across a wide diversity of institutions and organisations.

Welcome

MEEt the students

meet the students